No more Google! Use an eco-friendly search engine! :)

If you are like most people, it is not easy to understand how Google or any other search engine can operate and make millions of dollars giving away a service for free. They have their ways, however, and it is easy to see how just a couple of clicks by millions of people would give them revenue from "sponsored links". Now every business needs to make money, but many businesses these days can do so much more than just take in profits. When natural disasters happen like the earthquake in Haiti, and seeing how much support was raised by millions of people texting donations on their phones, and stars contributing through their pockets and their talents on fundraising shows, it made me think. What is more important - helping emergency situations one-time, or helping a cause a little bit each day long-term?

I will not deny that I am glad to see Haiti get as much help as they can (through people not government - much quicker isn't it?). But I want to highlight ways for us to help the green cause daily, through clicking daily on www.therainforestsite.com (or any of its worthy partner sites), or this new green search engine I just found - Ecosia.com .

Ecosia not only donates a good portion of its profits to saving the rainforest, and show you how much YOU are saving every time you make a search for anything, but it also runs on green servers so that there is no carbon emissions to make up for! Did you realize that we are using up a lot of energy and carbon every minute we are online? THIS makes me feel better and I encourage you to use it too. It's easy, free, and it will help save the rainforest, a few meters at a time.

Watch their video here - and get your new green search engine! :)

What can The Book of Eli teach us about the future?

I don't know about you, but sometimes post-apocalyptic movies scare me. I know that we will probably never end up like Sarah Connor in Terminator or Robert Neville in I am Legend...but they are always cautionary tales about what "could" happen if the world continues to tilt in the direction of a certain course we are erroneously taking. What is the worst that could happen? What will the last war be fought over - water and resources, or religion? These movies give creative license to one director's vision of the future, and The Book of Eli is no exception.

Since I believe that the world (and I admit, the US in particular) is all too consumptive and dismissive of the treasures we have from the earth - coal, water, minerals, even our air quality - we are headed down the path of no-return. Here is a clip where Denzel talks about us throwing away precious resources that people in this world would kill for. He attracts one follower in Mila Kunis (she has grown into a fine actress from the previews here) and when she sees he knows what happened in the past, and how it can change her future, she simply says, "Teach me". See the clip here -

 http://blogs.usaweekend.com/whos_news/2010/01/denzel-washington

I haven't seen the movie yet, but like many others out there, I can't wait to see WHY this book is so important, and how it can save what is left of humanity. Denzel plays an unflinchingly strong purveyor of the truth and will not give it away to any hustler or kingpin, and will fight to the death to protect it. And he often does, over and over again.

How far would you go to defend your beliefs? I am grateful that in the US, unlike some other countries, particularly in the Middle East, I am free to believe what I believe, and my faith is not forced upon me, nor taken away from me at gunpoint. I know that Denzel is determined to protect his faith, and fulfill his destiny of being the one shining light on the hill that will not sway to any evil power that wants to take it over.

I also believe that some will misuse "religion" to their own ends or will not portray it in its best light, and wars are fought in the name of religion, as probably here in this movie. It seems the anti-hero has some baggage of his own because of his "religious" yet unloving parents.

So what can we learn from this movie? I have to reserve my final judgment until I see the film on Jan 15, but I think it is safe to say that it will be a fascinating look into the minds of some very creative geniuses, and will give us time to pause and reflect on how we want our future to look. Avatar was fascinating because it gave you both sides of the war, and showed the motivation to attack for gain on one side, and to defend what was sacred to them on the other side. Will we sit back, do nothing and let the world crumble, or will we take an active role in protecting the planet for the sake of our children and future generations?